Czech potato pancakes of grated raw potato, garlic, and a generous amount of marjoram, fried crisp and thin in lard
Origin: Prague & Bohemia
From the journey of Potato.
The Czech word for potatoes, brambory, is a record of where they came from. Potatoes arrived in the Czech lands from Brandenburg, in Czech Braniborsko, in the later eighteenth century, and the new crop was called after it: some regional dialects still say branibory. The linguist Václav Machek once proposed a different origin and later withdrew it in favour of the Brandenburg explanation, which remains the accepted one. Bramboráky are the most loved of the things Czechs make from them. Raw potato is grated, squeezed of its water, and mixed with garlic, a little flour and egg, salt, and marjoram, and then fried in thin, lacy rounds in lard until the edges are brown and crisp. Czech cooks are clear that the marjoram, majoránka, is the seasoning that cannot be left out; it is what makes the pancake taste Czech rather than German or Polish, and it is used by the tablespoon rather than the pinch. They are sold at markets and fairs, eaten as a meal with sauerkraut or on their own with beer, and in the south they are sometimes wrapped round a filling of meat as bramborák plněný.
Work quickly once the potatoes are grated, or they darken; a pinch of salt on the grated potato slows it. Lard gives the traditional flavour; oil makes a lighter pancake.
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